21 June
1905 Kidnapped By Tramps “I was stolen by hoboes in Billings, two
weeks ago from my home with Paul
McCormick who is my uncle and have traveled with them ever since until I broke
away in Pocatello and came up here. They dressed me in rags and made me beg for
a living. They have done everything to me. I want to go home to Billings,” With
these words Carl De Witt, 11 years old
broke down and cried as if his heart would break in the office of the chief
of police this morning…The little fellow says he was subjected to indignities
which made him burst in to tears to think of. Deseret News
1969 Saturday- The Killing of Sister George scheduled to open
Wednesday at the Cinema Theater, 45 West 3rd South was reviewed. “Susannah York
is cast as Beryl Reid’s lover with Coral Browne as the one who breaks up the
relationship. The film describes the
erosion of a long time lesbian affair between Beryl Reid, the bleeding heart
heroine of a British television show, and Susannah York. The filmed has been tagged with an X rating
meaning adults only. Accompanying the article was a scene from the film with
two lesbian couples dancing. May be the first time Salt Lake Tribune used the
word Lesbian. (06/21/69 SLTribune Page 10)
1975- Billie
Hayes and Dorothy Makin, lesbian partners, appeared on Joe Redburn’s KUER FM radio “last of a
Series talk show” to present information on the newly formed Gay Community
Service Center.
1983-White House officials met with gay activists to discuss the
Reagan administration's response to AIDS.
1987- The Knights
of Malta held a BBQ at the in-between to initiate the in-between as their home
bar.
1987- At Salt Lake Affirmation Beau Chaine made a public apology to
Ben Williams about their disagreement two weeks ago. “He said that he had been
doing a lot of thinking and I was right. Beau said that Gays need a place just
to be their selves.” Beau Chaine is furious with Russ Lane director of Wasatch
Affirmation. Beau claimed that Russ uses the Affirmation info line to pick up
guys and claims that is how in fact he met his latest boyfriend Cory. Beau knew Cory from years ago when one of Cory’s employees turned Beau
into the LDS Church Russ
Lane ’s alleged unprofessional use of the phone
line.” [Journal of Ben Williams]
 |
| Romanovsky and Phillips |
1988-Tuesday Romanovsky and Phillips made their third appearance in
Salt Lake City. Event Sponsored by The Gay and Lesbian Community Council of Utah . Tickets at $5. Mike Pipkim dropped by so I talked him and
his boyfriend into coming to the concert along with the rest of us. Eric
Christensen, James Connally, James Conrad, Randy Olsen, John Reeves, Ken
Francis and his boyfriend James Zurkel all met at my apartment and then walked
over to Bryant Intermediate for the concert which was fabulous! The pair
promoted material off of their new album “An Emotional Roller Coaster” I bought two albums. It was hot, hot, hot in the auditorium and
everyone in the audience used everything and anything to fan themselves. Both
Romanovski and Phillips were sweating bullets.
Only about 150 people showed up for the concert and The Gay Community
Council did not make any money on it. In fact we went into the hole. I told Bruce Harmon to consider the community
dances’ money we loaned then a donation to the council. While our numbers were
small it was a fun supportive, and enthusiastic evening. No one left feeling
down.[Journal of Ben Williams]
1989 Thomas Brent Lindsey was born March 29, 1953 in Salt Lake
City, Utah to Glenn and Ruth Lindsey. Thomas was a co-founder of the People
with AIDS Coalition of Utah along with David Sharpton. He died from AIDS on
June 21, 1989 in San Francisco
at the age of 35. Tom came out in the San
Jose Mercury News on February 28, 1988 when he spoke about the
stigma of being a Gay Mormon with AIDS. The Mercury
News quoted him briefly: "People are so afraid to come forward
that by the time they seek medical help, it's too late."
1990 Thursday- The Summer Solstice-This evening Rocky O’Donovan,
Mike Pipkim, and I went out to Salt Air State Beach on the Great Salt Lake for
a Peace Solstice Celebration held by Quickbeam, a pagan heterosexual
group. We went in our Faerie drag. There was about fifty people out at the
beach, chanting, dancing, celebrating.
There was some type of a sound system there and Desert Air played some
beautiful New Age music. A woman walked us through a powerful mediation. I driftily came out of the meditation and returned to the scene
of white sandy beaches and a blue, blue mirrored lake reflecting the Solstice
Sky. Later at the celebration Rocky went
out to the Great Salt Lake to wade in the
water as did Michael Pipkim. I'll always
remember Puck, a giant of a man, silhouetted by the dying sun's golden gleams,
as he stood in the reflective water, dressed in Faerie garb holding his open
umbrella over his shoulder. The picture was of him so pensive and serenely
tranquil. As I was laying on my towel, listening to the hypnotic music, I found
my self surrounded by five children ages five to nine. They came over to me and just kind of sat
with me attracted to my mama-male aura I imagine. This little 3 year old girl named Gaia
snuggled up to me while this sweet red haired freckled face boy named Daniel
Terranova sat with me and shared his chips.
Little Ra was content to blow his soap bubbles. I'm not sure what energy I was exuding that
these children were attracted to; perhaps my receptive energies merged
into my male body. We stayed at the Solstice Celebration until about 10 p.m. after
watching the Sun in all his magnificence dip behind the Stansbury Mountains
 |
| Craig Miller |
1992- The Gay and Lesbian Community Council of Utah elected Kevin
Hillman again to co-chair the 1992 Pride Day with Antonia Dela Guerra of the
Lesbian Task Force and Frank Loy of the Royal Court. Pride Day was held June 21, 1992 at Salt Lake
County Fairgrounds in Murray. The Annual
Utah Gay and Lesbian Film Festival was
also held again but this time over the weekends of June 12- 13 and June 26-27.
The festival was organized by Marlin Criddle who was now chair of the Board of
Directors for the Utah Stonewall Center. The
1992 Kristen Ries Community Service Award was given to Craig Miller, first
director of the Utah Stonewall Center, and to The College of Monarchs of the Royal Court of the Golden
Spike Empire. “Pride Equals Power” was the theme of the 1992 gathering. Nearly
2,000 people attended the Pride Day attracted to the festivities by such
musical talent as Jess Hawk Oakenstar, a Lesbian Folk Singer from Phoenix,
Arizonia
- "As more people come out of the closet and more people realize they have loved ones who are gay, they become more accepting - if their religion permits it. Some people still do not want to acknowledge we need a hate-crimes bill, and people believe we don't deserve the rights of other people” -Antonia Dela Guerra
- “While a loudspeaker blared Sister Sledge’s rendition of “We Are Family” small groups staked out choice spots-mostly ones with shade- for Sunday’s celebration of Gay & Lesbian Pride Day ’92. Festive and serious overtones mixed at this celebration, which organizer Antonia de la Guerra said was designed to allow participants “to have a good time, enjoy what freedoms we have, show our numbers and strength, and display our unity and diversity.” “Pride Equals Power” was the theme of the gathering, the first since the Gay and Lesbian communities figured prominently in Utah’s political power struggles. Dela Guerra expected 2,000 participants during the day. Musician Jess Hawk Oakenstar came from Phoenix to perform (SL Tribune B3 6/22/92)
- 1992 UTAH GAYS, LESBIANS CELEBRATE PRIDE DAY Associated Press Organizers said Sunday's celebration of Gay & Lesbian Pride Day was meant to be both a friendly and political gathering. Antonia de la Guerra said participants could "have a good time, enjoy what freedoms we have, show our numbers and strength, and display our unity and diversity." "Pride Equals Power" was the theme of the gathering, the first since the gay and lesbian communities figured prominently in Utah's political power struggles. They fought hard in the Legislature for a bill that would penalize perpetrators of "hate crimes" but lost out when references to sexual orientation were omitted. Then the Gay & Lesbian Utah Democrats succeeded in getting a plank recognizing homosexual rights into the Salt Lake County Democratic Party platform. But it was diluted at the state Democratic Party Convention. "As more people come out of the closet and more people realize they have loved ones who are gay, they become more accepting - if their religion permits it," de la Guerra said. "Some people still do not want to acknowledge we need a hate-crimes bill, and people believe we don't deserve the rights of other people.", (June 22, 1992 Deseret News).
1996 Friday - " Drove with Al [Alma] Smith to what we in San
Diego call, the third Friday meeting at the stake center in Westwood, Los
Angeles. A member of the stake high Council announced that the stake president
which guided the group for several years was released from his calling as stake
president. There will be two high council members in charge of the group now.
The elder who originated the group, was asked to step down. A new
leader/teacher would be teaching us as gay and lesbian members of the
group. The high council member later
told me that the former stake president was reprimanded and
released by Apostle
Hales. The reason was the group meeting on September 15, 1995 was publicized
beyond the Westwood Stake. This group could only be under this stake
president's direction for members specifically of the Westwood Stake. We from San Diego could still
attend. However I would not receive a post card reminder of the meeting.
(Donald Attridge)
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| Alma Smith |
 |
| Edie Carey |
 |
| Michael Mitchell |
2003 Ben Williams to Brandon Burt
[Subject City weekly] -Below is the letter I sent to the SLC WEEKLY editor
however only the words in brackets were included in the paper. I guess it’s
okay for them to make snide remarks against Gays but they don't like heteros
being made fun of.-Ben
- “For several issues I have wondered what is going on with the Weekly. First there was Shane McCammon's juvenile spew on the seminal fluids of males. Semen is icky? To whom- adolescent girls? Then Bill Frost seems to be fixated on what Gay men do with their butts. I know Frost likes to portray himself as the perpetual adolescent male obsessed with mammary glands and wild male horseplay (IE. heterosexual bonding) but enough all ready. You're straight. We get it. However (what prompted me to write was David Richardson's puerile claim that "heterosexualism has the potential of bringing a person the greatest possible joy and happiness and the greatest possible growth in knowledge, wisdom, and understanding of which a person is capable." Tell that to Plato, Michelangelo, Alan Turing, Stephen Sondheim and countless others! Contrary to Richardson's narrow definition, life is more than simply the joys of procreation. St. Paul, the founder of Christianity, even said its better to remain single, as he was, than to marry. Jesus Christ, when asked who was his family, did not state his pedigree, but rather said all who believed and followed him were his family.) Yes Gay sex is hot! I can understand why some heterosexuals are jealous. However let me explain something to those straights who don't get it, (homosexuality is not about what is done with our genitals but rather all about who we fall in love with. It's about love.) Get it? (I can not believe that anyone with any intelligence would make the claim that Gay people are more prone to sadness, depression, loneliness, and suicide then straights.) Has Mr. Richardson never read Dear Abby for God's sake! And as for VD and AIDS, Syphilis did not come from homos and AIDS is still up to debate whether that was an experiment gone terribly wrong. (Gay people are nurturers, creative people, and have an insight on the nature of Romance) that few heterosexuals can even imagine! Historians will tell you that it was the Gays in the middle ages that created the modern concept of romance! Religious and political institutions dictated that sex in marriage was for procreation only. (And as for what is good for children, I personally feel, Mr. Richardson, that any child is happiest when raised by someone who loves him or her.) Finally, Mr. Richardson let's hope that you have a Gay child so that in your old age when all your hetero children are busy raising your grandchildren, there will be someone compassionate enough and willing to wipe your ass and change your diapers. Ben Williams
- BRANDON
BURT I think David Richardson is just a letter-writer, isn't he? I mean, I
realize some people at the Weekly get into that stupid hypercynical mentality that since gays got a certain amount of good press in the 1990s, suddenly it's possible to be hip and edgy by being anti-gay—one of the most infuriating and distasteful phenomena of recent years, in my opinion--but I always enjoy it when publications print letters from idiots; it gives people a chance to "speak truth to stupidity". Anyway, staff never pays any attention to letter-writers; people who write letters are all supposed to be cranks and the sheer fact that anyone feels strongly enough about anything to write a publishable letter for free is enough to discredit him/her. (Again, I don't always agree with this, but it's part of that whole hypercynical mindset that's rampant among insecure types who fear nothing more than being considered uncool.) On the other hand, it will be interesting to see what response you get. I just don't understand where they get this attitude--I mean, I know they subscribe to the Seattle Stranger. Don't they ever read it? It's obvious that the Stranger sets the bar for hip and edgy weekly tabloids, and a big part of what does it is an unflinching acceptance of the fact that a good percentage of their readership (and staff) is unapologetically gay (plus the fact that Dan Savage is the editor in chief). Does this mean that it is never critical of the gay community? Far from it: the Stranger is free to criticize more honestly than the Weekly ever could. It recently ran a cover story that was very critical of a certain segment of the gay male community, and yet I wasn't offended--It seemed like it was written with the community's best interests at heart, and it seemed to show that the Stranger really cares. If the Weekly tried to do the same thing, it would be a lot more difficult with its current editorial policy for it not to sound like muckraking. *** I sent Greg Garcia an email yesterday; haven't heard back from him yet, though. I'll keep you posted. XOXOX Brandon
Brandon Burt
2003 BRANDON BURT Dear Ben, Hey! I just heard back
from Greg Garcia; he wanted me to forward his Email address to you: The
only thing is he would like you to keep his address
 |
| Greg Garcia |
strictly private (that's why I wanted to email
him to get his permission.) And, okay, well, specifically, he asked that
you not share it with Chad Keller. (I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, so I'm
just going to keep all that to myself, but Greg did want me to pass that
along to you.) So *anyway*, I told him that you would like to interview
him for the historical society, and mentioned that Chad had said something
about an award. XOXOX Brandon \
Ben Williams to Greg Garcia [Founding Member of Wasatch
Leathern Men] Greg ,So sorry to hear about your
accident and glad you are still with us. Brandon told me about keeping your
email address private and will do so. Greg, I was hoping that you might be able
to help me fill in the history of Falcon Flight, dates locations, memorable
events etc. I also want to send you all that I have on the WLMC and correct
errors or add to the info if you are willing to do so. Do you have access to
the leadership list for the group for the years your organization existed? Any
help you could give would be very valuable. Don't let this overwhelm you. Let’s
do this in bite size bits and then we can super size it when all done. By the
way I miss your sensibility and great smile. Your friend Ben Williams
- GREG GARCIA Hi Ben, Good to hear from a long-lost friend! I'd be happy to give you any info I can. Most of my memorabilia is in storage right now, but I'm sure we can push thru the cobwebs in my head and find some semblance of history. It's great that you are still holding the torch with the historical society. People like you who give so much of themselves, make the community in Salt Lake livable. How have you been? I've pretty much recovered from my encounters with SUVs and stray deer, but as you probably know, we've reached an age where ya gotta keep up the maintenance, or the whole shebang quits. Got a ride up into the Sierras this weekend, to visit a biker bro at his cabin. Hope you're well, and enjoying the summer. Let me know what ya wanna know, and I'll give ya the lowdown. Looking forward to reminiscing,
2003 Salt Lake Tribune Section: Nation/World Page: A1Freedom Fest lacks diversity,
critics say Too conservative: Annual Fourth of July extravaganza draws fire for
leaning to the right; Provo festival criticized for lack of diversity By Mark
Eddington The Salt Lake Tribune PROVO
-- There are lots of things right with America's Freedom Festival. And critics of the July 4 patriotic gala in
Provo say that is precisely the problem. It has too many Republicans and not
enough Democrats. It is heavy on Sean Hannity and light on Alan Colmes.
Diversity -- or its lack -- is an issue after 20 Utahns recently scolded
organizers for allowing Hannity to host the festival's Stadium of Fire at
Brigham Young University's football stadium. In a letter, the signers accused
the conservative commentator of being a hatemonger and an "embarrassment."
"He's very divisive because he is
so right-wing and goes berserk when anyone disagrees with him,"
Springville resident Chriss Pope said of Hannity, whose nationwide show is
aired on KSL Radio. Hannity also appears on TV with liberal sidekick Colmes. Others
view Hannity's involvement as part of a much larger problem at the festival,
which has a $2 million budget and bills
itself as the nation's premier Independence Day party. The festival draws a
half-million or more revelers every year to Provo for its 25-plus events.
"There have been some questions about diversity," said BYU physics
professor Bill Evenson, whose wife, Nancy, signed the letter along with Pope
and others. As some see it, festival leaders are part of an "old boy
network" that discourages participation by Democrats, gays and minorities
who fall outside of Utah County's conservative mainstream. They point to the
all-Anglo, mainly Mormon and Republican makeup of the festival leadership and
the right-wing tone of the celebration. Festival officials accuse critics of
taking liberties with the truth. "We've
had Larry King, a liberal Democrat and a true patriot, involved at the festival
in a major way at the Stadium of Fire show and haven't had a single complaint
from a conservative," said Carl Bacon, festival executive director. Festival leaders point with pride to past
participation from former Democratic Rep. Bill Orton, singer Gladys Knight, who
is black, the Rev. Robert Schuller and others. Bacon says board members even
have invited Walter Cronkite, Tom Brokaw and former President Carter. While
Bacon cannot name a single Democrat (other than King), black or Latino on any
of the festival's top boards, he bristles at any suggestion of exclusion or
bigotry. "I'd assume most are Republican," he said. "But I don't
ask that question. I don't think it is appropriate." He says the same is
true of board members' religion. Even so, festival leaders pledge to make
diversity a future priority. Paul Richards remembers diversity -- too much
of it -- being an issue when he served on the festival board in the late 1980s.
At one meeting, "Someone made the comment that if we could just get rid of
some of these Democrats around here, we could really get things done,"
recalled Richards, a Republican at the time. During much of the 1980s, the Utah
County Democratic Party did not enter a float in the festival's parade because
leaders believed the GOP received preferential treatment. When the Democrats
began entering a float in the 1990s, they say they often were victims of subtle
harassment. Nancy Woodside, former Utah County Democratic Party chairwoman,
recalls being yanked from the parade one year for not having her truck properly
registered with festival officials. In other years, parade leaders threatened
to bar future participation if Democratic leaders wore campaign T-shirts. "It
was always something," Woodside recalled. "It was like our slip was
always showing." Reports in the early 1990s that gays and lesbians sought
entrance to Salt Lake City's Days of '47 Parade worried Freedom Festival
officials, who decided privatizing the gala was preferable to having Provo
continue to run it and risk entry by such groups. Former Mayor George Stewart
remembers organizers approaching him about privatization during the spring of 1994.
"One of their concerns was that if
it was a government parade, they would have to allow whoever or whatever"
to participate, Stewart said. "It was a hot potato," recalled Rod
Fudge, past parade president. "This was an attempt to take it off the
plate and get it out of the kitchen." Even today the festival all but
shuts the door to gay groups. David Pratt, parade chairman, says such entries
would have to conform to the parade theme and pass muster with float reviewers.
Added Bacon, "We want people to
express patriotism, not lifestyle. . . . Let me tell you, the thing that ruined
Hollywood was that very issue. They started having gay parades. I don't want my
children seeing what I saw in Hollywood, and I don't want anything that is
inappropriate in this parade." Michael Mitchell, executive director of
gay/lesbian political action committee Unity Utah, says that is the private
Freedom Festival's privilege. "The word 'freedom,' however, flies in the
face of their exclusion of people who don't think like them," Mitchell
said. "Patriotism does not solely belong to folks who are conservative and
straight. Wrapping bigotry in the flag doesn't make it less; indeed, it makes
it all the more stark." Woodside, however, sees hopeful signs the festival
is trying to be more inclusive. This year, for the first time, a parade
official called the Democrats and asked if the party wanted to participate. "I guess even the journey of a thousand
miles begins with the smallest step," she laughed. Even so, the Democrats
declined.
contact you for a historic perspective,
etc. I would note that Rocky [Anderson] did open the door for the Utah Gay
Community to participate in the Dayz of 47 when they put him on as an honorary
board member. He asked them to consider diversifying and did mention Gay
community, and they said that they would allow us if we meet the theme and
went through the process. I have tried to get a float together for two
years...but the expense is quite a lot,
and I could never get enough groups together
that would financially support it and realize just the presence of a
nice float spoke volumes politically without a need to be nasty and
degrading. That would come later. Also
we should also point out subtly if anyone has the chance the total lack of
diversity in Utah's Newest Informercial "Best of State." The board is all right wingers from
Provo. Perhaps we can do.... “Simply the Best”.....without all of the
entrance fees and what not. CK
- MARK EDDINGTON- Interview request from Tribune reporter Mark Eddington “Ben, I’m working on a story about the lack of diversity at the Freedom Festival. Michael Mitchell suggested I get in touch with you for an interview. Could you call me as soon as possible Thanks. Mark Eddington The Salt Lake Tribune”
- Ben Williams I gave your cell phone number to Eddington so he may contact. This is what I got out of it: Tribune Reporter Mark Eddington is doing a news story on the lack of diversity in the Utah County’s Freedom Festival. Evidently the new darling of the radical right Sean Hannity is invited to address the crowd although the current Festival organization is a private, non-profit, and supposedly non-political foundation that plans and organizes annual 4th of July celebrations. Sean Hannity appears on Fox News Channel's Hannity and Colmes and ABC Radio's Sean Hannity Show and has recently written a book Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty Over Liberalism. Hannity is the new Rush Limbaugh and declared that “if the Left prevails in America, the well-being of future generations will be in peril,” by creating confusion in our society (and among children) about what is right and wrong. He is against adoption and marriage rights for same sex couples having stated “You know, kids don’t want to have two daddies. They want to have a dad and a mom." According to Eddington the Freedom Festival went private as a non profit organization in 1994 after learning that some Gay groups had petitioned to be included in Salt Lake’s Days of 47 parade. He confirmed this by citing conversations with a Mayor of Provo and a director of the festival.
- CHAD Per Michael [Mitchell] (I called as I wrote this)- This is a festival in Provo... common knowledge is that the Freedom Festival went private, due to Gay Groups trying to get into the Days of 47. He is looking for historic facts from our community. Michael Mitchell suggests he
 |
| Chad Keller |
2003 The Utah Stonewall
Historical Society is an all volunteer non-profit educational organization. We
have been registered with the state of Utah Department of Commerce registration
#5303644-0140. We are currently working on our 501 3c status which will be
filed this month. All donations are tax deductable as a charitable
contribution. Please make checks payable to Chuck Whyte our treasurer. We have
an Employee Identification Number to open an account but so far we have not had
the funds to open an account. We will be opening an account with Washington
Mutual, a friend of our community. Our mailing address is Utah Stonewall Historical Society P.O. Box
252 SLC Utah 84111 If you have enjoyed this [group] site or want to know how to
help; a donation of any size would be appreciated. Little raindrops a river
will make. Sincerely Ben Williams Class of 69 BTW; Interesting fact-This year's
calendar corresponds with 1969. Stonewall Riots occurred Friday June 27 and
Saturday 28 and this year it will be the same days! Happy Gay Liberation to
all!
- KATHY WORTHINGTON-Here's an idea: come right out and ask for donations from the community. Such a fundraising effort might not bring in very much, but it might at least pay off the loan Ben made to USHS. I myself will send a check of some size - where should I send it to? Kathy Worthington
June 21, 2003 VICE SQUAD Metro Sports Club in ZCMI Center, "Vice
cops have been working the steamrooms and showers over the last couple months
with a number of arrests. It’s still a great gym to meet sexy guys, but be
discrete in the showers."
2006 The Breast Dialogues workshops are beginning! For the third
year running, the Alternative Women’s Wellness Program of the GLBT Community Center Community Writing
Center
2019 Thrilllist "How Salt Lake City, of All Places, Built America's Most Impressive Pride Celebration" By Kastalia Medrano Utah’s first Gay and Lesbian Pride March, in 1990, drew maybe 250 people. It went more or less unopposed. The biggest issue it ran into was that the route took marchers past a bunch of parked horse carriages, the sort tourists ride around the downtown. “We were marching by, chanting and screaming,” says Connell “Rocky” O’Donovan, the march’s founder and a man introduced to me as “the local gay historian.” The horses, naturally, were startled -- presumably at the sight of a vocal gay march in Salt Lake City, or perhaps at the ruckus itself. “That actually got really dangerous,” O’Donovan continues. “I felt really bad for the horses. And the drivers and the police had approved the route, but then they said, ‘Oh, shoot, this wasn’t a good idea, was it.’” But aside from the horse encounters, it was, in fact, a pretty good idea. At the second march, in 1991, turnout roughly doubled. O’Donovan led marchers on a new route from the state capitol down to the city council building, where the Utah Pride Festival is held today. And this time, they arrived to find a handful of neo-Nazis waiting. “They’d taken over the premises, and they had not gotten permits to be there,” O’Donovan says. “I was so angry that I had gone through all these hoops to get a permit and they just showed up. We went to the cops, and the cops were like, ‘They were here first.’ And I was like, ‘But they don’t have a permit to be here!’” O’Donovan, bullhorn in hand, outwardly maintained his composure as he blared the message to his marchers that Nazis, too, had the right to free speech and freedom of assembly. Inwardly? “I’m freaking out,” he says, “thinking if any of them have a gun they’re gonna shoot me.” Today, Utah Pride is most definitely A Thing. This year, the parade drew well over 125,000 people over the weekend. And the lead-up to the parade is stacked with events: an interfaith service; a youth dance; a 5K. When it’s time for the parade itself, marchers carry rainbow flags the length of a city block. Marriages are officiated from moving floats. As is the trend, this year’s festivities featured Aja, a former contestants from RuPaul’s Drag Race, and a queen who re-emerged from the ashes of an unremarkable performance on Season 9 with a Season 10 debut so gag-worthy (i.e., excellent) that they made the entire internet look foolish (myself included). To put it simply, Utah Pride was lit. Pride here is now so large and so commercialized that old-timers like O’Donovan can feel estranged. (Its many, many sponsors include Goldman Sachs, which employs thousands in the city and which played a substantial role in making the city more cosmopolitan.) That’s a pretty typical dialogue around the nation’s largest, most established Prides. What makes Utah Pride quite atypical, though, is where it was established. Across just about every metric, you've got to put Utah firmly among the most conservative states in America. The last time its electoral votes went toward a Democrat for president was 1944, FDR's final term, and its long running, Trump-loving senior senator Orrin Hatch only vacated his seat this year. Since Karl Malone retired from the Utah Jazz -- since 1979 the most ironic name in American professional sports, after the team moved from New Orleans -- the national face of the state has been Mitt Romney, a Mormon and private-equity multimillionaire who tempts his faith’s bans on alcohol and caffeine by enjoying the occasional coffee ice cream. Even if you’re not Mormon, and you’d like to enjoy so much as a Bud Light, things can get dicey in Utah. If you want to buy beer with more than 4% alcohol in Utah, you've got to buy it from a state-run liquor store, and no one can sell alcohol after 1am throughout the state. Until 2017, bartenders had to stand behind a frosted window called a Zion curtain to prepare drinks; the idea was to keep alcohol out of sight of people who weren't drinking. In Salt Lake, the Pride parade is free, but the Festival itself has an admittance charge -- the state’s liquor laws won’t allow Bud Light et al to sponsor free events (proceeds go to the Utah Pride Center). "Oh, honey, we're all ex-Mormons. The Episcopalians, the Unitarians -- they're all ex-Mormons." It can skew a bit uptight, is what we’re saying here. No surprise, Mormonism is a powerful theme in Salt Lake City’s queer community. But it’s that variable, and the state’s unique religious identity, that has made the city’s Pride so bold and so trailblazing. It’s also what has made it an inspiration to anyone invested in seeing equal rights become the norm for queer Americans. Certainly for dispossessed people who grew up in a strict religious environments, it has been a godsend. Those tensions don’t exist elsewhere in this precise way because no other city is home to the LDS headquarters, and perhaps no other American city of Salt Lake City’s size (1.15 million metro area) has so much power concentrated in its church. That original march route, the one that startled the horses, O’Donovan chose because it would take marchers past two sides of downtown’s Salt Lake Temple -- a startling, Gothic castle-like so sheer and upright in design it looks like a 3D puzzle, almost digitally superimposed on its surroundings. About half of Utahns are affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, the American religious group that Gallup has found is most likely to identify as conservative. The LDS church adheres to a law of chastity specifying that the only acceptable sex is straight sex, and those edicts show in the state’s politics. In 2004, for instance, Utah voters approved, by a two-to-one margin, a state constitutional amendment that withheld legal recognition from same-sex marriages and domestic partnerships. Obviously, something had to give. In the late 1980s, the different factions of Utah’s queer community were loosely organized under an umbrella organization, the Gay and Lesbian Community Council of Utah. By democratic process, each group across the state could vote to send three members to what amounted to an LGBT summit to represent their vote in various matters of the gay agenda, as it were. It was in this manner that the council came to appoint O’Donovan its director of public relations. “I chose to interpret that title very broadly,” O’Donovan says now. “And used it to organize the first march.” That’s a term distinct, he points out, from a parade, which is more celebratory. The march carried more overt political overtones. “I wanted to do a march -- ‘we’re here, we’re visible, we exist’ -- which had never been done before in Salt Lake.” O’Donovan was the one who applied for city permits, hired security, planned the route, went to the police department to get the necessary permissions. Thus it was that in 1990 he led that first Gay and Lesbian Pride March, the precursor to what would later become the Salt Lake City Pride Parade. Between the 1990 and 1991 marches, O’Donovan had founded activist group Queer Nation Utah to help radicalize the Salt Lake City community, and its members had taken non-violent activist training with a local Quaker church. O’Donovan instructed Queer Nation to form a line in front of the neo-Nazis -- who were bearing swastikas and chanting “Sieg Heil,” some of them in full Nazi Party uniform -- and keep them away from the marchers. The state's unique religious identity has made the city's Pride so bold and so trailblazing. Also present were a few additional protesters who did not appear to be Nazi-affiliated, but who milled around with signs denouncing homosexuality in general (“oh, you know, ‘AIDS IS GOD’S PUNISHMENT FOR FAGGOTS,’ that kind of thing,” O’Donovan says). It is good to remember this rule of thumb in life: Even though you may not consider yourself a Nazi, if you find yourself standing on the side of the Nazis it is time to commit to some self-reflection. Those first two years the March was held on June 27, to honor the anniversary of the Stonewall riots. O’Donovan moved away, and for the next two years, no march took place. Then, in 1994, a small handful of activists stepped forward to pick up where he’d left off, and the Gay and Lesbian Pride March was reborn as the Salt Lake City Pride Parade. Over the course of the 1990s, Queer Nation Utah proved instrumental in galvanizing and mainstreaming Salt Lake City’s LGBTQ community. Today, the Pride Parade coexists with the Dyke March, the Transgender March, and the Interfaith March. “The impact an event like Salt Lake City Pride has on the community is powerful,” says Sara Grossman, communications manager at Matthew Shepard’s Foundation. The foundation’s name honors an LGBTQ+ student that was victim to a fatal hate crime, so Grossman understands how important it is to recognize the influence Pride has on youth. “This is who gay pride is for, after all. Not those of us who have lived in NYC or LA or SF, and have had no problem being our true selves because we were safe, but for those who live in places like Salt Lake City or Laramie, WY, or any other red dot in America.”
2019 Thrilllist "How Salt Lake City, of All Places, Built America's Most Impressive Pride Celebration" By Kastalia Medrano Utah’s first Gay and Lesbian Pride March, in 1990, drew maybe 250 people. It went more or less unopposed. The biggest issue it ran into was that the route took marchers past a bunch of parked horse carriages, the sort tourists ride around the downtown. “We were marching by, chanting and screaming,” says Connell “Rocky” O’Donovan, the march’s founder and a man introduced to me as “the local gay historian.” The horses, naturally, were startled -- presumably at the sight of a vocal gay march in Salt Lake City, or perhaps at the ruckus itself. “That actually got really dangerous,” O’Donovan continues. “I felt really bad for the horses. And the drivers and the police had approved the route, but then they said, ‘Oh, shoot, this wasn’t a good idea, was it.’” But aside from the horse encounters, it was, in fact, a pretty good idea. At the second march, in 1991, turnout roughly doubled. O’Donovan led marchers on a new route from the state capitol down to the city council building, where the Utah Pride Festival is held today. And this time, they arrived to find a handful of neo-Nazis waiting. “They’d taken over the premises, and they had not gotten permits to be there,” O’Donovan says. “I was so angry that I had gone through all these hoops to get a permit and they just showed up. We went to the cops, and the cops were like, ‘They were here first.’ And I was like, ‘But they don’t have a permit to be here!’” O’Donovan, bullhorn in hand, outwardly maintained his composure as he blared the message to his marchers that Nazis, too, had the right to free speech and freedom of assembly. Inwardly? “I’m freaking out,” he says, “thinking if any of them have a gun they’re gonna shoot me.” Today, Utah Pride is most definitely A Thing. This year, the parade drew well over 125,000 people over the weekend. And the lead-up to the parade is stacked with events: an interfaith service; a youth dance; a 5K. When it’s time for the parade itself, marchers carry rainbow flags the length of a city block. Marriages are officiated from moving floats. As is the trend, this year’s festivities featured Aja, a former contestants from RuPaul’s Drag Race, and a queen who re-emerged from the ashes of an unremarkable performance on Season 9 with a Season 10 debut so gag-worthy (i.e., excellent) that they made the entire internet look foolish (myself included). To put it simply, Utah Pride was lit. Pride here is now so large and so commercialized that old-timers like O’Donovan can feel estranged. (Its many, many sponsors include Goldman Sachs, which employs thousands in the city and which played a substantial role in making the city more cosmopolitan.) That’s a pretty typical dialogue around the nation’s largest, most established Prides. What makes Utah Pride quite atypical, though, is where it was established. Across just about every metric, you've got to put Utah firmly among the most conservative states in America. The last time its electoral votes went toward a Democrat for president was 1944, FDR's final term, and its long running, Trump-loving senior senator Orrin Hatch only vacated his seat this year. Since Karl Malone retired from the Utah Jazz -- since 1979 the most ironic name in American professional sports, after the team moved from New Orleans -- the national face of the state has been Mitt Romney, a Mormon and private-equity multimillionaire who tempts his faith’s bans on alcohol and caffeine by enjoying the occasional coffee ice cream. Even if you’re not Mormon, and you’d like to enjoy so much as a Bud Light, things can get dicey in Utah. If you want to buy beer with more than 4% alcohol in Utah, you've got to buy it from a state-run liquor store, and no one can sell alcohol after 1am throughout the state. Until 2017, bartenders had to stand behind a frosted window called a Zion curtain to prepare drinks; the idea was to keep alcohol out of sight of people who weren't drinking. In Salt Lake, the Pride parade is free, but the Festival itself has an admittance charge -- the state’s liquor laws won’t allow Bud Light et al to sponsor free events (proceeds go to the Utah Pride Center). "Oh, honey, we're all ex-Mormons. The Episcopalians, the Unitarians -- they're all ex-Mormons." It can skew a bit uptight, is what we’re saying here. No surprise, Mormonism is a powerful theme in Salt Lake City’s queer community. But it’s that variable, and the state’s unique religious identity, that has made the city’s Pride so bold and so trailblazing. It’s also what has made it an inspiration to anyone invested in seeing equal rights become the norm for queer Americans. Certainly for dispossessed people who grew up in a strict religious environments, it has been a godsend. Those tensions don’t exist elsewhere in this precise way because no other city is home to the LDS headquarters, and perhaps no other American city of Salt Lake City’s size (1.15 million metro area) has so much power concentrated in its church. That original march route, the one that startled the horses, O’Donovan chose because it would take marchers past two sides of downtown’s Salt Lake Temple -- a startling, Gothic castle-like so sheer and upright in design it looks like a 3D puzzle, almost digitally superimposed on its surroundings. About half of Utahns are affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, the American religious group that Gallup has found is most likely to identify as conservative. The LDS church adheres to a law of chastity specifying that the only acceptable sex is straight sex, and those edicts show in the state’s politics. In 2004, for instance, Utah voters approved, by a two-to-one margin, a state constitutional amendment that withheld legal recognition from same-sex marriages and domestic partnerships. Obviously, something had to give. In the late 1980s, the different factions of Utah’s queer community were loosely organized under an umbrella organization, the Gay and Lesbian Community Council of Utah. By democratic process, each group across the state could vote to send three members to what amounted to an LGBT summit to represent their vote in various matters of the gay agenda, as it were. It was in this manner that the council came to appoint O’Donovan its director of public relations. “I chose to interpret that title very broadly,” O’Donovan says now. “And used it to organize the first march.” That’s a term distinct, he points out, from a parade, which is more celebratory. The march carried more overt political overtones. “I wanted to do a march -- ‘we’re here, we’re visible, we exist’ -- which had never been done before in Salt Lake.” O’Donovan was the one who applied for city permits, hired security, planned the route, went to the police department to get the necessary permissions. Thus it was that in 1990 he led that first Gay and Lesbian Pride March, the precursor to what would later become the Salt Lake City Pride Parade. Between the 1990 and 1991 marches, O’Donovan had founded activist group Queer Nation Utah to help radicalize the Salt Lake City community, and its members had taken non-violent activist training with a local Quaker church. O’Donovan instructed Queer Nation to form a line in front of the neo-Nazis -- who were bearing swastikas and chanting “Sieg Heil,” some of them in full Nazi Party uniform -- and keep them away from the marchers. The state's unique religious identity has made the city's Pride so bold and so trailblazing. Also present were a few additional protesters who did not appear to be Nazi-affiliated, but who milled around with signs denouncing homosexuality in general (“oh, you know, ‘AIDS IS GOD’S PUNISHMENT FOR FAGGOTS,’ that kind of thing,” O’Donovan says). It is good to remember this rule of thumb in life: Even though you may not consider yourself a Nazi, if you find yourself standing on the side of the Nazis it is time to commit to some self-reflection. Those first two years the March was held on June 27, to honor the anniversary of the Stonewall riots. O’Donovan moved away, and for the next two years, no march took place. Then, in 1994, a small handful of activists stepped forward to pick up where he’d left off, and the Gay and Lesbian Pride March was reborn as the Salt Lake City Pride Parade. Over the course of the 1990s, Queer Nation Utah proved instrumental in galvanizing and mainstreaming Salt Lake City’s LGBTQ community. Today, the Pride Parade coexists with the Dyke March, the Transgender March, and the Interfaith March. “The impact an event like Salt Lake City Pride has on the community is powerful,” says Sara Grossman, communications manager at Matthew Shepard’s Foundation. The foundation’s name honors an LGBTQ+ student that was victim to a fatal hate crime, so Grossman understands how important it is to recognize the influence Pride has on youth. “This is who gay pride is for, after all. Not those of us who have lived in NYC or LA or SF, and have had no problem being our true selves because we were safe, but for those who live in places like Salt Lake City or Laramie, WY, or any other red dot in America.”
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